Chris Finch Takes Blame For Randle's Struggles, Talks Wolves' Next Steps

There are times where Chris Finch's refusal to publicly call out or criticize Julius Randle comes across as rather bizarre. When it kept happening during the second round against the Spurs, while Randle was having an atrocious series, it just felt odd. Sure, Finch may believe Randle isn't the kind of player who responds well to public criticism, but a coach who has no issue calling out other highly-paid players treating a 12-year veteran with kid gloves came with some weird optics.

Finch just did it again, and even more blatantly than ever. During a lengthy interview with KFAN's Paul Allen on Wednesday, the Timberwolves' head coach took the blame for Randle's struggles against the Spurs and then started talking about things Randle did well in a truly abysmal series where he shot 34 percent from the floor, 19 percent from three, had twice as many turnovers as assists, and earned a -33 net rating.

But this time, it at least makes some sense. The season is over. It's in the Wolves' best interest to say good things about Randle in the public sphere and not do anything that could damage his trade value. If Finch truly believes what he's saying here, that would be a problem, but hopefully that's not the case.

"I think Julius's struggles in the series against San Antonio were my struggles," Finch said. "It's incumbent upon me to find ways to get him going. I never really could. We just couldn't do it.

"Having said that, I thought he did a really good job guarding Wembanyama, I thought he did a really good job of playmaking. There was a game, I think it was Game 3, he drove to the paint and kicked out 14 times, which is exactly what we were trying to do with him as a playmaker. We didn't make a single point off of those 14 kick-outs. That's not on him. That's on us. He did the right thing, we just couldn't benefit from it. ... Julius was really good for us in the Denver series and he did a great job in a lot of the things that don't measure up in the stat sheet."

Taken at face value, that's a laughable answer. All Wolves fans can do is hope Finch is holding back his true thoughts in the name of not impacting Randle's trade value. Because judging the temperature on social media, it feels like most fans would be very disappointed if Randle is still on the roster next season.

Julius Randle | Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Finch talks next steps

The Timberwolves have fallen short against the eventual Western Conference champions in each of the last four postseasons. They've won five total series during that run, but they haven't been able to get over the hump and truly contend for a championship. Their best opportunity was probably in 2024 against the Mavericks, even though they lost that WCF in five games.

So how do they get there? Finch believes it's about continuing to improve and continuing to give themselves a chance in the playoffs.

"The margins for error are super razor thin," he told Allen. "We've gotta continue to mature as a team, both as a group of individuals and also as a collective. Our young players gotta take next steps, internally we gotta grow, we gotta make a couple key acquisitions along the way. Gotta stay healthy. The biggest thing, in this era when you've had eight champions in eight years, getting a seat at the table is the most important thing. You gotta just keep sitting down at the table and then something might break your way."

Mentioning "a couple key acquisitions" is interesting. Does Finch expect Tim Connelly and company to be active on the trade market?

"I do," he said. "Tim and his crew always do a really great job of canvassing the league in the run-up to the draft. Tim's the best I've ever seen at understanding what everybody's trying to do in the market, whether it be trade, trade deadline, draft, free agency. He's got incredible support by Marc and Alex, our new ownership. It's been fun to watch them get their feet under the table and be active in making changes, little and big. I know they're very aggressive in being able to keep pushing this thing forward.

"So yeah I do expect us to be (active). I don't know what the end result will be, if it'll be a lot of change. We love our core and we know we just need to keep adding to it a little bit. I got utmost faith in Tim and his crew and Marc and Alex to be able to do it."

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